THE OBAMA/CARTER AXIS – AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  We are entering a period of reflection on our actions in the Mideast since the first revolutionary gasp in Tunisia many weeks ago.  There is clearly a growing consensus that Obama simply can't handle events.  They're handling him.  In that sense, he is a kind of Jimmah Carter clone.  At least Carter had gone to the Naval Academy and knew which end of a rifle sends the bullet flying.

Reader Susan Kohen of Connecticut refers us to an excellent piece by Middle East commentator Barry Rubin, who has shown an uncanny sense for what is happening:

I'm worried because others aren't worried. The more they show that they don't understand the dangers, the greater the dangers become.

President Franklin Roosevelt said about the Great Depression that there was, "Nothing to fear but fear itself." That is, Americans should be confident about their abilities to solve problems. But he didn't say, when German forces seized one country after another, that Americans shouldn't be afraid of change in Europe. Nor did he say, as the Japanese Empire expanded, that Americans shouldn't be afraid of change in Asia.

President Harry Truman didn't say that Americans shouldn't be afraid of change in Eastern Europe when the Soviets gained power over the governments there or China became Communist.

These (Democratic) presidents recognized the danger and worked to counteract it as best they could under the circumstances.

In contrast, while giving lip service to the idea that it's a "dangerous time," Obama never points to what the dangers are because, frankly, he has no idea. All the points he makes about these changes are positive, cheerleading.

And...

And so when Obama says:

"I'm actually confident that 10 years from now we're going to be able to look back and say that this was the dawning of an entirely new and better era. One in which people are striving not to be against something but to be for something."

Remember those words. He has absolutely no understanding of the Arabic-speaking world, the Muslim-majority world, or the Middle East whatsoever. How are these new regimes going to stay in power, smite their rivals, and make up for not delivering the material goods to their people? What is the world view of these forces? How do they perceive America, the West, and Israel? These are the questions that should be asked, and answered, in order to understand what the world will look like in a decade.

COMMENT:  Our fear here is that Obama not only lacks understanding of the Muslim world, he is served by people who are even more dense...like intelligence officials who describe the Muslim Brotherhood as moderate and even secular.  (As Charles Krauthammer said, that's a strange name for a secular organization.)

The number of pieces critical of Obama is building up.  Even John Kerry, hardly a warmonger, is advocating that we set up a no-fly zone over Libya and has ridiculed, as has John McCain, the Pentagon's warnings about how tough it might be. 

Where is the international applause for Obama that we were promised?  Where is the godlike wisdom?  Where are all the young people of the world who were supposed to fall in line behind him?  Where is his own party, strangely silent about one of the great convulsions of our time?

Many on the right cautioned in 2008 that Obama was Carter lite.  The assessment was correct, maybe even understated.  He is not leading in this new period in the Mideast.  Sometimes the president doesn't even appear to be there.  Even Ruth Marcus, the diehard liberal columnist for the Washington Post described the administration last week as the "Where's Waldo?" presidency.

So far, Mr. Obama's inadequacy does not appear to be hurting his poll rankings.  Americans don't often vote on foreign policy, but on economic policy.  But foreign policy mistakes can be bloody, or fatal.  I hope we understand that when we go to the polls a year from November.

March 7, 2011